Sam's interest in Zen

Confucious heard about an old farmer who lived on a distant mountainside who was gaining a reputation as a sage. He told his disciples to pack up. They were going to try and find this fellow. Making inquiries at temples along the way, the famous teacher and his entourage finally arrived at the farmer’s poor, but tidy place. The old wife did her best to make the guests comfortable, and put a large pot of water on for tea. “Yang Shan is out on the mountainside digging bamboo shoots,” she said. He will be in before dark.

Coming in with his hoe and bag of shoots, the old man was astonished to find all the people waiting for him. Tea was served and enjoyed in silence.
Then Confucious introduced himself and explained that he had heard rumors that Yang Shan had achieved enlightenment. “I’ve come to see for myself,” he said. “Tell me, who were your teachers? What is your practice?”

Yang Shan bowed to the great philosopher. “I just sit and forget,” he said.

Confuscious was astonished. He put his teacup down and turned to his disciples. “I’m going to become this man’s pupil,” he said.

We can counteract the over-personalized Western tradition of theism with the understanding reflected here, while at the same time bringing the dynamism of Western understanding to ‘Everything under the heaven will naturally find its equilibrium’ in order to more accurately reflect awake aliveness.
So - how to take out both the over-personalization of God the Creator and Commander, and the over-tranquilization of this passage? By listening to both traditions with equal, non-judgemental attention, and looking at what is appearing around me, also with non-judgemental attention.
I think that the Christian listens too hard, expecting the voice to be a personal voice, perhaps even to speak in words!
However, as a Buddhist I didn’t listen enough, thinking that freedom from the desire to act was something to be achieved.
By naming the ‘nameless simplicity’ we bring the energy of love to each perception.

“I have one thing, it has no begining & no ending, no name & no character, no past & no future, what is it ?”

You have infinite number of chances to get to know this thing which both you and I have within.

Infinite chances within infinite cycles.

sgx - A few posts back, ‘Yang Shan’ said, “I just sit and forget.” He is referring Confucius to the fertility of the mind ground, or MU (clear sky, emptyness). Pat seems doubtful, maybe thinking that the intellect will go to waste, if even the desire to act is dropped. The desire to act is not the mind ground. The desire to act has a beginning and an end, (birth and death) a name and a character (personality), a past and a future (becoming). This is worse than the jellyfish! Another rat turd in the soup.

6th ZEN MASTER HUINENG’s POEM of THE FORMLESS
心平何劳持戒？行直何用修禅？
When the heart and mind is calm and level, where is the need to follow the strict rules ? When you act straight and righteously, where is the need to practice ZEN ?
恩则亲养父母，义则上下相怜。
Grace means loving and caring for your parents, righteousness means compassion among those above and below.
让则尊卑和睦，忍则众恶无喧。
Politeness and giving way means there is peace among the noble and the underclass, tolerance means there is no shouting at the evil of the masses.
若能锁木出火，淤泥定生红莲。
If one can make fire from wood, then the red lotus will be born in the muddy pond.
苦口的是良药，逆耳必是忠言。
The good medicine is bitter to the taste, the wise sayings are difficult to listen to.
改过必生智慧，护短心内非贤。
Repentence and correction will give birth to wisdom, protecting and hiding the flaws means thy heart is not pure within.
日用常行饶益，成道非由施钱。
During daily affairs one must always practice forgiveness which benefit thee, attaining the path is not due to your donation of money.
菩提只向心见，何劳向什求玄？
The enlightenment is only seen within thy heart & mind, wherefore the need to seek the abstract divinity externally?
听说依此修行，天堂只在目前。”
It is heard that by practicing according to these, the heaven is instantly within sight.

What is always changing
with permutations rearranging
the flow of night and day
the ocean in its play
the drops of foam and spray,
what, indeed, are they
but that which does not change
and if this seems too strange
the only thing to say

Every sentinent beings has it.
Most do not understand it.
Some understand it but have not got to know it.
Some know it but has not mastered it.
Some mastered it but has not attained it.
Some attained it hence need not answer the question by ways of those who have not attained it.

“For the last 15 years I have engaged in a series of conversations with Western scientists. We have exchanged views on topics ranging from quantum physics and cosmology to compassion and destructive emotions. I have found that while scientific findings offer a deeper understanding of such fields as cosmology, it seems that Buddhist explanations - particularly in the cognitive, biological and brain sciences - can sometimes give Western-trained scientists a new way to look at their own fields.

It may seem odd that a religious leader is so involved with science, but Buddhist teachings stress the importance of understanding reality, and so we should pay attention to what scientists have learned about our world through experimentation and measurement.

Similarly, Buddhists have a 2,500-year history of investigating the workings of the mind. Over the millenniums, many practitioners have carried out what we might call “experiments” in how to overcome our tendencies toward destructive emotions.

I have been encouraging scientists to examine advanced Tibetan spiritual practitioners, to see what benefits these practices might have for others, outside the religious context. The goal here is to increase our understanding of the world of the mind, of consciousness, and of our emotions.”

Excerpt from ‘The Monk in the Lab’ by Tenzin Gyatso (the Dalai Llama) Dharamsala, India

第七十九章 Chapter 79
和大怨，必有馀怨，安可以为善？
Peaceful settlement of huge vengeance, yet there is always minor remaining vengeance, how then to resolve it nicely ?
是以圣人执左契，而不责于人。
Henceforth the sage who holds on to the proof of debt, does not punish or blame the debtor.
有德司契，无德司彻。
The one with virtues will thus hold on to the proof of debt like such, while those without virtues will enforce it like an unbearable tax.
天道无亲，常与善人。
The path of heaven is righteous and favors no one, yet it is always with the one who is virtuous and compassionate.

The ideas in that text echo an ancient attempt to draw people away from tribes into the larger civilization of China. It means pretty much zilch to people today.

We now see that our most destructive behavior is based on well-meaning ignorance. ‘Heaven’ doesn’t help us, doesn’t instruct us, but will punish us for our mistakes…or, more likely, punish our children and grandchildren.

Mao was trying to help people.

Time to update our understanding of the moral logic of the universe. Science is revealing the divine laws.